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Happy Holidays!

December 22, 2016

Christmas came early for me this year. Last weekend, I woke up to find that Nadia Comaneci had posted on social media —"Karlin Gray did an amazing job with this book"—with an image of NADIA: THE GIRL WHO COULDN'T SIT STILL and an Amazon link! I've always been proud of this book but that endorsement was delicious icing on the cake. I'm so thankful to everyone who helped me with this book, from my writing instructor Victoria Sherrow to my editor Kate O'Sullivan at HMH to the talented illustrator Christine Davenier.

I just want to remind writers that I don't have an agent. I workshopped my manuscript for a year. (Yes, my classmates were sick of it!) I sent it to every publisher that publishes unsolicited nonfiction picture books. It was rejected everywhere . . . until one person plucked it from the slush pile.

Since then, I have been writing, submitting, and receiving lots of rejection letters. And then one day, another editor picked up one of my manuscripts. Now my rhyming fiction picture book, AN ORDINARY MOTH, will be published by Sleeping Bear Press in 2018.

I hope that you have enjoyed reading this Q&A blog and learning about how writers created their first picture book. It will return in the New Year with new writers and new books. Until then, enjoy the holidays with family and friends before you go back to that drawer full of manuscripts!